Tier System¶

Logistics organizes pipes and features into three tiers that represent progression from simple mechanical operations to advanced network logistics.

Tier 1: Mechanical Pipes¶

No item awareness - These pipes perform mechanical operations without looking at what's flowing through them.

Characteristics: - Operate on all items equally - No conditional behavior - Simple recipes (material + glass) - Available early in progression

Examples: - Stone Transport Pipe - Move items slowly - Copper Transport Pipe - Standard transport - Item Extractor Pipe - Pull from inventories - Item Merger Pipe - Converge to single output - Golden Transport Pipe - Speed boost

Tier 2: Smart Pipes¶

Item-aware routing - These pipes inspect items and make decisions based on what they see.

Characteristics: - Conditional behavior based on item type - Can filter and sort - More complex recipes (advanced materials) - Mid-game progression

Examples: - Item Filter Pipe - Route by item type - Item Insertion Pipe - Prefer inventories with space

Tier 3: Network Logistics¶

System-aware automation - Future tier that treats inventories as abstract resources with global routing.

Characteristics: - Request/provider model - Global pathfinding - Autocrafting integration - End-game progression

Status: Planned, not yet implemented

Design Philosophy¶

Each tier builds on the previous: - Tier 1 provides physical connectivity - Tier 2 adds intelligent routing - Tier 3 will add abstract logistics

All tiers work together - you'll use pipes from all tiers in complex networks.

See Also¶

• Pipe Networks - How tiers connect together
• Pipes - All pipe types organized by tier
• Routing - How different tiers route items